:% 


lLLICISM  in  japan 


A    DISSERTATION    PRESENTED    TO   THE    FACULTY    OF    ARTS, 

LITERATURE,   AND   SCIENCE,   OF   THE   UNIVERSITY 

OF    CHICAGO,    IN    CANDIDACY    FOR    THE 

DEGREE    OF     DOCTOR     OF 

PHILOSOPHY 


EDMUND  BUCKLEY 


>     I.  a 


&fc, 


Q\ 


iALLICISM   IN   JAPAN 


A    DISSERTATION    PRESENTED    TO   THE    FACULTY    OF    ARTS, 

LITERATURE,   AND    SCIENCE,    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY 

OF   CHICAGO,   IN   CANDIDACY   FOR   THE 

DEGREE    OF     DOCTOR     OF 

PHILOSOPHY 


EDMUND  BUCKLEY 


CHICAGO 

€t)t  3Untoet0itg  of  OTt)irago  $ms 

1895 


OF  PRI#Cf 


JAN  18  1955 
BL4-4C 


CONTENTS. 


Dedication                 -              -              -              -              .              .  -        4 

Preface                -                           -----  4 

Introduction  : 

Bibliography  on  Phallicism  in  Japan    -              -              -  5 


Bibliography  on  Shinto 

Bibliography  on  Phallicism      -             -  -             -             -       6 

Museums  of  Shinto  Cultus  Implements  -                           -             8 

Museums  of  Phallic  Cultus  Implements  -              -              -       Q 

I.   Phallicism  in  Japan 

I.  Temples           -             -             -  -             -             -            10 

II.  Symbols    -              -              -              -  -              -              -      14 

III.  Festivals                         -  -             -                          10 

IV.  Rituals      -             -              -              -  -              -              -     22 

V.  Phallicism  in  the  Kojiki           -  -              -           22 

II.  Creed  of  Phallicism     -                           -  -             -              -     26 

III.  Place  of  Phallicism  in  the  Evolution  of  Religion  -  -           30 

IV.  Does  Phallicism  belong  to  Shinto?       -  -             -             -     32 
V.  Suggestions  for  Further  Research  "             "             ■           33 


DEDICATION 


Respectfully  dedicated  as  an  expression  of  highest  esteem  to 
Emil  G.  Hirsch,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Rabbinical  Literature  and 
Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Chicago  and  Rabbi  in  the  Sinai 
Congregation,  Chicago,  that  profound  scholar  and  ever  ready 
patron  of  liberal  learning,  without  whose  generous  aid  in  the 
Emil  G.  Hirsch  fellowship,  this  thesis  could  not  have  been 
written. 


PREFACE 


This  thesis  is  meant  for  a  study  in  Shinto,  while  a  work  com- 
plete at  least  in  outline  will  be  published  so  soon  as  oppor- 
tunity offers. 

The  circumscription  in  the  circulation  of  an  academic  mono- 
graph renders  admissible  a  detail  and  frankness  in  the  treatment 
of  phallicism  which  would  be  inadmissible  in  work  destined  for 
the  general  public.  Should  any  general  reader  happen  upon 
this  article  and  find  it  unduly  stimulating  his  lower  sensibility, 
he  may  thereby  judge  his  distance  from  the  scientific  purpose  of 
the  writer,  and  will  do  better  in  passing  the  article  to  fitter 
hands.  Finally  let  me  say  that  in  breaking  such  new  ground  as 
is  here  done,  errors  both  of  commission  and  omission  must  occur, 
and  these  should  meet  with  prompt  correction  at  the  hands  of 
the  many  scholars  in  Japan  who  are  best  fitted  to  the  task. 


INTRODUCTION. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY   ON    PHALLICISM    IN    JAPAN. 

On  this  topic  no  book  of  course  is  to  be  expected,  but  there 
is  moreover  no  monograph,  article,  or  chapter,  and  but  four 
stray  references  to  the  topic  as  such  in  any  of  the  very  numerous 
works  treating  of  Japan,  or  of  Shinto,  its  native  faith,  which  I 
have  been  able,  after  visiting  libraries  in  many  capitals,  to  con- 
sult. These  four  references  are  a  description  of  a  phallic  festival 
by  Dresser,  a  single  sentence  by  Dr.  J.  J.  Rein,  a  footnote  by 
Rev.  W.  E.  Griffis,  D.D.,  and  a  brief  paragraph  in  the  Hand- 
book to  Japan.  Each  will  be  quoted  in  its  proper  place. 
Neither  in  accounts  of  Shinto  is  any  mention  made  of  phal- 
licism,  nor  in  the  accounts  of  phallicism  given  in  special  works 
—  to  be  described  later  —  is  any  reference  made  to  Japan.  The*, 
encyclopaedias  of  course  reflect  this  omission  of  the  special  works. 
Thus  Meyer's  Conversations  Lexicon  sub  Phallos  states  that 
phallicism  "extended  from  India  to  the  shores  of  the  Nile  and 
Ionian  Sea,"  no  doubt  ignorant  of  the  cult  of  InyOseki  in  Japan, 
as  of  Fricco  among  the  Teutons. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY    ON    SHINTO. 

The  authorities  referred  to  in  this  work  are  Transactions  oj 
the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,  Vols.  I. -XXI.  ;  Japan,  Kaempfer  in 
Pinkerton's  Voyages,  Vol.  7  ;  Japan,  Caron  in  the  same  ;  Japan, 
S.  S.  Rein;  Japan,  Dresser;  Mikado's  Empire,  W.  E.  Grif- 
fis ;  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Japanese,  Humbert ;  Hand- 
book for  Japan,  Chamberlain  and  Mason  ;  Mythology  and  Reli- 
gious Worship  of  the  Ancient  Japanese,  Satow  in  Westminster 
Review  for  July,  1878  ;  Japa)iese  —  English  Dictionary,  Hepburn  ; 
Inyoseki,  Hirata  no  Kuro  Tane,  being  selections  from  the 
Koshiden  of  Hirata  Atsutane  ;  Notes  on  the  Ancient  Stone  Imple- 
ments of  Japan,  T.  Kanda,  Tokyo.  The  only  articles  on  Shinto 
at  once  original  and,  at  least  in  outline,  complete  are  the  three 
following  which  are  named  in  their  time  order  : 

5 


Mittheilungen  uber  die  Kamielehre,  by  P.  Keinpermann  in 
Mittheilungen  der  deutschen  Gesellschaft  fiir  Natur  und  Volker- 
kunde  Ostasien's,  January,  1874. 

Mythology  and  Religious  Worship  of  the  Ancient  Japanese,  by 
E.  Satow  in  Westminster  Review  for  July,  1878. 

Introduction  to  the  Kojiki,  by  B.  H.  Chamberlain  in  Transac- 
tions of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan.     Supplement  to  Vol.  X.,  1882. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  each  of  these  correct  and  learned  treatises 
altogether  overlooks  the  phallic  cult  which  is  undoubtedly  extant 
in  Japan. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY    ON    PHALLICISM. 

Though  the  range  of  this  article  is  limited  to  Japan,  the  gen- 
eral subject  of  phallicism  is  so  little  known  even  to  those 
likely  to  meet  this  paper  that  a  specification  of  some  general 
sources  will  probably  prove  acceptable.  It  is  a  matter  for  regret 
that  treatises  on  comparative  religion  omit  all  recognition  of 
phallicism  as  a  general  phase  of  religion.     Of  such  may  be  noted: 

Primitive  Culture,  E.  B.  Tylor,  1871  ;  Introduction  to  the 
Science  of  Religion,  F.  Max  Miiller,  1882;  Prologomena  of  the 
History  of  Religions,  A.  Reville,  1884;  Ecclesiastical  Institutions, 
H.Spencer,  1S85  ;  Religionsgcschichte,  C.  Saussaye,  1887;  Myth, 
Ritual  and  Religion,  A.  Lang,  1887  ;  Science  of  Religions,  E.  Bur- 
nouf,  1 888;  Natural  Religion,  F.  M.  Miiller,  1888;  Physical 
Religion,  F.  M.  Miiller,  1890;  Anthropological  Religion,  F.  M. 
Miiller,  1891. 

We  venture  to  draw  special  attention  to  the  last  but  one,  which 
in  treating  nature-worship  should  have  included  phallicism.  But 
while  it  treats  abundantly  of  fire,  it  makes  no  mention  of  the 
phallos,  or  linga  as  it  is  called  in  India,  to  which  country  all  Mr. 
Midler's  treatises  are  confined.  Yet  while  the  traveler  in  that 
country  sees  little  or  nothing  of  fire-cult,  he  sees  hundreds  of  linga, 
the  whole  number  being  estimated  at  nothing  less  than  thirty  [  | 
millions  ! 

Saussaye's  classic  of  course  mentions  phallicism  in  its  historic 
sections,  but  no  due  recognition  is  made  of  phallicism  in  the  top- 
ical treatment  of  the  subject  entitled  Phenomenologischer  Theil. 
Strangely  enough,  the  immense  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  has  no 
article  on  our  topic,  but  the  American  and  International  Encyclo- 

6 


psedias,  and  the  German  Conversations  Lexicons  give  correct 
general  statements  of  It.  An  excellent  account  of  Indian  phalli- 
cism  appears  in  the  Hinduism  and  Brahmanism  of  Sir  M.  Wil- 
liams (cf.  index  sub  lingd),  and  in  his  Buddhism,  p.  372.  For 
the  wider  Aryan  field  consult  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations,  by 
Sir  G.  W.  Cox,  though  the  details  here  advanced  are  still  under 
discussion.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  all  the  works  hitherto 
devoted  exclusively  to  phallicism  are  unreliable.  In  fact  the  rule 
seems  to  be,  as  stated  to  me  by  Dr.  Reid  of  the  British  Museum, 
that  so  soon  as  one  begins  to  study  phallicism  he  goes  crazy. 
The  writers  of  these  special  works  on  phallicism  are  all  amateurs 
—  a  plurality  being  medical  doctors  —  and  most  of  them  are 
warped  by  an  anti-Christian  bias.  They  represent  the  reaction 
inevitable  on  the  general  neglect  of  the  topic  by  those  theologians, 
philosophers  and  anthropologists  who  have  for  one  reason  or 
another  ignored  a  phase  of  religion,  as  natural  as  it  was  in  fact 
general,  if  not  quite  universal.  The  chief  of  these  special  works 
are  : 

A  Discourse  on  the  Worship  of  Priapus,  by  R.  P.  Knight,  to 
which  is  added  "An  Essay  on  the  Worship  of  the  Generative  Pow- 
ers during  the  Middle  Ages  of  Western  Europe,"  Anon.,  London, 
1865.  The  starring  of  this  work  in  Sonnenschein's  "Best  Books" 
must  be  taken  strictly  in  relation  to  such  other  works  as  exist, 
and  not  as  a  sign  of  satisfactoriness,  which  in  fact  it  does  not 
possess. 

Ancient  Faiths  embodied  in  Ancient  Names.  T.  Inman,  M.D. 
This  is  a  work  of  Dr.  Reid's  "crazy  "  kind,  full  of  false  etymologies 
and  identifications,  and  intensely  doctrinaire  and  anti-Christian. 
Its  lexical  form  affords  excellent  opportunity  for  the  repetition 
in  which  it  abounds  through  the  792  pp.  of  Vol.  I.,  and  the  1028 
pp.  of  Vol.  II.  !  The  uncritical  nature  of  the  whole  may  be 
inferred  from  the  author's  caution  that  where  statements  in  the 
later  portion  of  the  work  differ  from  those  in  the  earlier,  the 
later  must  be  considered  correct !  Such  books  will  continue  to 
entrap  the  unwary  until  accredited  writers  deal  with  the  topic  in 
its  rightful  place.  Yet  Inman  demonstrates  some  survivals  in 
Christianity  which  its  accredited  teachers  find  it  convenient  to 
hush  up.     Ancient  Pagan  and  Modern  Christian  Symbolism.     Same 

7 


author.  The  statement  in  Sonnenschein  that  this  work  will  suf- 
fice for  acquaintance  with  the  author's  views  I  cannot  confirm. 
Wholesale  condemnation  of  such  works  are  usually  as  falsely 
motived  as  the  works  themselves. 

Rivers  of  Life.  Forlong.  18S3.  The  experience  of  this 
writer  throughout  a  long  residence  in  various  parts  of  India  as 
military  engineer  makes  him  an  authority  on  rarely  known  facts, 
but  his  neglect  to  specify  names  of  places  and  persons  lends  the 
whole  an  untrustworthy  air,  and  damages  it  as  proof.  In  the  six 
chapters  into  which  his  54S  folio  pages  are  divided,  no  analysis, 
progress  or  order  whatsoever  is  discernible. 

Tree  and  Serpent  Worship.  J.  Fergusson,  1873.  This  is  the 
Fergusson  of  archaeological  and  architectural  fame  and  the  star- 
ring of  his  work  in  Sonnenschein  is  well  deserved  by  his  extensive 
acquaintance  with  the  phallic  phenomena  of  India. 

Monumens  du  Culte  Secret  des  Dames  Romaines.  A.  Capree, 
1874.  These  are  chiefly  reproductions  of  gems  engraved  by  Greek 
artists  at  Rome  about  the  time  of  Augustus,  and  exhibit  in  great 
beauty  and  detail  the  phallic  sacrifices  and  processions  of  their  own 
and  preceding  ages.  Particularly  one  on  Plate  50,  representing  a 
phallic  procession  carved  on  cornelian,  about  2  by  1  inches  is,  so  far 
as  I  know,  after  searching  museums  around  the  world,  a  unique 
monument  of  that  once  familiar  rite.  It  comprises  besides  the 
phallos  which  is  borne  in  triumph  under  a  canopy,  a  gigantic 
kteis  (pudenda  muliebria),  a  bull,  a  goat,  and  numerous  musi- 
cians. 

I  met  the  above  works,  among  others,  in  the  British  Museum, 
most  of  them  in  the  reserve  shelves,  to  which  only  special  stu- 
dents are  allowed  access. 

MUSEUMS. 

1)  Of  Shinto  Cultits  Implements.  The  only  museums  outside 
Tokyo  where  I  have  seen  or  heard  of  Shinto  cultus  implements 
are  the  Leyden  Museum,  the  Musee  Guimet  in  Paris,  and  the 
Pitt-Rivers  Museum  in  Oxford.  The  last  two  make  no  preten- 
sion to  completeness,  and  indeed  both  are  conspicuously  incom- 
plete. Phalloi  from  Japan  these  museums  have  none,  nor  had 
their  curators  learned  that  such  objects  were  found  there.  Of  the 
Leyden  Museum  I  unfortunately  know  nothing  in  detail. 


2)  Of  Phallic  Cultus  Implements.  The  implements  of  the 
phallic  cult  where  possessed  at  all  are  mostly  withdrawn  to  secret 
cabinets,  except  where  so  conventional  as  to  run  no  danger  of 
"  scandalizing  the  prude  and  the  prudent  or  of  pleasing  the  pru- 
rient and  the  vile."  Only  in  the  Naples  Museum  is  any  notice 
given  of  the  existence  of  such  cabinet,  or  is  admittance  granted 
the  general  public.  In  all  other  museums  examination  is  granted 
only  on  request  and  that  for  scientific  purposes.  An  eminent 
American  anthropologist,  known  to  me,  visited  the  British 
Museum  armed  with  full  credentials  to  the  curator  of  the  religious 
section,  and  was  allowed  to  leave  without  information  that  a 
phallic  collection  originally  valued  by  R.  P.  Knight  at  .£50,000 
was  preserved  there.  It  is  such  precautions  —  necessary  in  some 
degree  in  behalf  of  present-day  morality  —  that  have  made  possi- 
ble that  garbling  of  history,  philosophy,  comparative  religion,  and 
theology  that  at  present  misleads  the  majority  of  even  the  highly 
educated.  But  true  science  knows  no  sex,  and  those  who  cannot 
forget  the  latter  should  eschew  the  former.  Altars,  reliefs,  neck- 
laces, gems,  but  especially  Greek  and  Roman  vases  form  the  most 
likely  places  for  phallic  monuments  —  except  of  course  phalloi 
themselves,  —  and  generally  stand  mixed  with  other  objects  quite 
safe  from  the  observation  of  the  average  museum  visitor. 

Living  Authorities  on  Phallicism  in  Japan.  Though  I  found 
no  one  in  Europe  or  America  aware  of  the  presence  of  phallicism 
in  Japan,  I  never  found  an  old  resident  in  Japan  ignorant  of  it. 
It  is  evidently  high  time  that  some  mediation  be  made  between 
these  two  parties,  and  such  will  be  the  purpose  of  the  present 
thesis. 


I.    PHALLICISM    IN    JAPAN. 

Phallicism  forms  an  integral  part  of  nature  worship,  and  as 
such  will,  if  normal,  possess  a  cult  and  a  creed,  though  the 
latter  may  be  in  part  or  even  entirely  implied,  and  can  then  be 
elicited  only  by  questions  put  to  the  devotees.  The  content  of 
its  religious  consciousness  may  then  be  compared  with  absolute 
religion,  and  finally  it  may  be  tested  for  conduct.  These  four 
spheres  of  religious  activity  suggest  a  convenient  scheme  for  tab- 
ulating data,  and  will  now  be  considered  in  the  order  named. 

The  phallic  cult,  that  is  worship  or  ceremony,  requires  a  con- 
sideration of  temples,  symbols,  festivals,  and  rituals. 

I.  Temples. — Such  phallic  temples  include  (i)  the  fully  equip- 
ped "miya"  or  temple  with  resident  priest  or  priests;  (2)  the 
smaller  miya  with  only  occasional  services  ;  (3)  the  mere  sheds 
protecting  from  the  rain,  rows  of  phalloi  ;  and,  (4)  a  mere  fence 
or  boundary,  while  the  phallos  stands  in  the  open.  To  the 
first  class  belongs  a  miya  at  Kasashima,  fifteen  miles  south  of 
Sendai,  said  to  have  been  founded  about  250  B.  C.  by  Yamato 
Takeru  No  Mikoto.  The  deity  worshiped  is  Saruta  Hiko  No 
Mikoto,  of  whom  more  later.  In  the  service  of  this  famous  temple 
were  once  fifteen  resident  priests  with   their  families  and  houses. 

To  the  same  first  class  belongs  a  miya  at  Makiborimura  in 
Iwade  Ken.  The  deities  here  are  Izanagi,  Izanami,  and  Saruta 
Hiko,  which  three  are  associated  with  Konsci  Dai  Myojin 
"Root  of  Life  Great  Shining  God." 

To  the  second  class  belongs  the  shrine  at  Kande,  eight  miles 
inland  from  Akashi  near  Kobe,  locally  called  Dai  Seki  Miya,  or 
Ra  no  Seki  Miya — Great  Stone  Shrine,  or  Penis  Stone  Shrine. 
Its  seclusion  in  the  country  has  saved  its  gigantic  phallos  from 
the  iconoclastic  zeal  of  the  reformer  to  bless  the  eyes  of  the 
archaeologist.  I  hope  the  moss-grown  pillar  deity  I  found  here 
may  yet  be  granted  a  place  of  honor  in  some  museum  when  the 
rising  sun  of  an  exacter  science  and  a  nobler  faith   has  enlisjht- 


ened  the  simple,  honest  country  folk  who  now  trust  in  him  for 
various  daily  needs.  This  miya  is  about  ten  feet  square,  hung 
with  native  pictures,  furnished  with  altar  and  gohei —  symbol  of 
divinity,  —  and  provided  back  and  front  with  a  wooden  grating 
through  which  the  four  feet  high  phallos  may  be  seen  standing 
behind  the  miya  within  an  oblong  stone  fence,  but  unsheltered 
save  by  the  bamboo  forest  around.  The  ground  inside  this  fence 
is  thickly  covered  with  shells,  of  which  more  later.  Some  score 
yards  from  the  shrine  and  phallos  stands  a  kteis,  formed  in  this 
instance  by  a  natural  collocation  of  three  rocks,  the  whole  being 
some  five  feet  high,  and  requiring  so  much  imagination  to  con- 
strue into  a  kteis  that  I  doubt  not  the  time  will  come  when  the 
closet  philosopher  will  deny  they  were  ever  so  considered.  Any 
doubts  that  such  a  rough  pile  of  rocks  was  really  worshipped 
would  have  been  soon  dispelled  by  the  tiny  native  paper  Hags 
bearing  the  legend,  Osame  tatematsuru,  "respectfully  dedicated," 
which  had  been  stuck  into  the  ground  before  the  symbol.  The 
local  names  for  this  interesting  pair  are  for  the  phallos  Okko 
San,  for  the  kteis  Mekko  San,  which  are  names  given  by  the  Ainus 
—  the  dwellers  in  the  land  before  the  Mongol  invasion  —  to  the 
hill  on  which  the  two  now  stand  and  a  neighboring  hill  similar 
in  size  and  shape,  on  which  the  phallos  formerly  stood.  Local 
tradition  preserves  the  fact,  and  the  Japan  A/a//  of  August  22, 
1 89 1,  p.  224,  refers  to  Oakkan  and  Meakkan  as  names  given  two 
neighboring  hills  in  Yezo  where  the  Ainus  are  still  extant. 

Of  the  third,  the  mere  shed  class,  I  found  a  good  specimen 
in  a  shrine  to  the  phallos  as  Konsei  on  the  Konsei  Pass  above 
Lake  Yumoto  near  Nikko.  That  this  shrine  dates  back  to  the 
first  possession  of  the  land  appears  certain  from  the  hnpartation 
of  its  name  to  the  pass  on  which  it  stands.  It  may  turn  out  that 
Okko  and  Mekko  are  also  names  of  the  pudenda,  and  originally 
gave  their  names  to  the  hills*  on  which  they  once  stood.  I  got 
track  of  this  shrine  from  that  model  Handbook  for  Japan  (third 
edition)  issued  by  B.  H.  Chamberlain  and  W.  B.  Mason,  two  of 
the  foremost  scholars  in  Japan.  Their  brief  note  runs  thus  : 
"Tradition  says  that  the  original  object  of  reverence  was  made 
of  gold,  but  that  having  been  stolen,  it  was  afterwards  replaced 
by  one  of  stone.      Ex-votos,  chiefly  wood  and  stone  emblems,  are 

1 1 


often  presented  at  the  shrine.  Very  little  is  known  about  the 
origin  of  phallic  worship  in  Japan,  although  it  appears  to  have 
been  at  one  time  nearly  universal  in  the  country  districts, 
especially  those  of  the  north  and  east."  This  brief  statement  is 
the  only  general  one  that  has  yet  appeared  on  the  subject,  and 
no  doubt  summed  up  general  knowledge  on  it  three  years  ago. 
It  was  to  be  corrected  in  the  forthcoming  edition.  The  shrine 
consists  of  a  wooden  shed  some  four  feet  square  with  a  low  shelf 
running  round  three  sides  on  which  stand  some  dozen  phalloi 
of  various  sizes  in  stone  and  wood.  Hard  by  stands  a  large 
stone  lantern.  On  the  shrine  appears  the  name  and  address  of 
a  Tokyo  hotel  company  specially  catering  to  pilgrims,  and  at 
whose  expense  the  shrine  had  probably  been  restored. 

Another  shrine  of  this  class  stands  at  Yamada  outside  the 
northwest  corner  of  the  famous  Naiku  San  —  the  Ise  shrine  to 
Amaterasu,  the  "Heaven-Shiner,"  regent  of  the  Shinto  pantheon, 
—  and  between  two  temples,  one  to  Oho-yama-tsu-mi-no-kami 
"the  Deity-Great-Mountain-Possessor,"  and  the  other  to  his 
daughter  Ko-no-haiia-saku-ya-himc,  "  Princess-Blossoming-Bril-  < 
liantly-Like-the-Flowers-of-the-Trees",  v.  ho  presides  over  Mount 
Fuji.  The  shrine  frames  a  typical  phallos  and  kteis  side  by  side, 
though  scores  of  native  miniature  torii  (wooden  gateway  to  tem- 
ple) ever  pile  over  and  hide  these  antique  dual  deities  from  the 
careless  observer.  These  torii  had  been  removed  for  the  occasion 
when  the  photograph  found  at  the  frontispiece  of  this  work  was 
taken.  At  the  neighboring  temple  of  the  Ko-no-hana-saku- 
ya-hime  native  phalloi  and  ktenes  are  brought  or  taken  by 
persons  desiring  children,  spouse,  or  healing  of  diseases  of  the 
generative  system.  An  erotic  story  is  related  of  this  deity,  Kojiki 
115;  and  her  sister  Iwa-naga-hime,  "Enduring  as  the-Rocks," 
presiding  over  Mount  Oyama,  is  symbolized  by  a  large  stone  in 
the  shrine  at  its  summit  and  there  worshiped  by  the  harlots 
from  Tokyo.  This  stone  should  be  examined  to  learn  whether 
it  be  a  kteis  or  simply  symbolic  of  the  deity's  name  as  explained 
in  a  legend  or  myth,  Kojiki  116. 

To  this  class  probably  belonged  the  cases  mentioned  in  the  Mika- 
do s  Empire  33  :  "I  have  noticed  the  prevalence  of  these  shrines 
and  symbol's,  especially  in  eastern  and  northern  Japan,   having 

12 


counted  as  many  as  a  dozen,  and  this  by  the  roadside,  in  a  trip 
to  Nikko.  The  barren  of  both  sexes  worship  them,  or  offer  them 
ex-voto.  In  Sagami,  Kadzusa,  and  even  in  Tokvo  itself,  they  were 
visible  as  late  as  1874,  cut  in  stone  and  wood."  The  road  here 
referred  to  from  Tokyo  to  Nikko  is  about  100  miles  long,  and 
three-fourths  of  it  is  part  of  one  of  the  chief  highways  in  Japan. 

Of  the  last  class,  where  the  temple  reduces  to  its  original 
notion  of  a  separated  space  in  the  open,  there  are  naturally  many 
cases  of  so  primitive  a  cult.  Such  I  infer  from  the  remains  was 
the  now  dismantled  platform  at  Nikko,  the  stone  phalloi  having 
been  all  dumped  below  an  adjacent  Buddhist  temple  —  where 
they  now  lie- — in  response  to  the  remonstrance  of  the  then 
American  minister,  on  the  ground  that  the  place  was  one  of  great 
summer  resort  for  foreign  families. 

I  transfer  from  a  sheet  published  by  Myase  Sadao,  and 
extracted  by  him  from  the  Koshiden  (Ancient  History)  of  the 
famous  Japanese  historian  and  archaeologist  Hirata  Atsutane,  the 
following  cases.  All  belong  to  the  last-named  class  or  a 
subdivision  of  it  yet  to  be  mentioned  : 

Phallos  in  the  open  at  Kotakainura,  in  Katorigori,  province 
of  Shimosa. 

Ditto  at  Otamura,  Inabagori,  Shimosa. 

Ditto  at  Ishigimura,  Mishimagori,  Echigo. 

Ditto  at  Shibuimura,  Nishi  Kasaigori,  Musashi, 

Phallos  with  kteis  beside  it  at  Matsuzawamura,  Katorigori, 
Shimosa.  "Both  like  to  drink  wine,  and  hence  are  called  Sake 
iionii  isJii,  Wine  drinking  stones."  The  worshiper  presents  wine 
which  they  absorb  very  quickly.  More  than  250  years  ago  the 
kteis  departed  to  the  next  village,  and  in  consequence  no  mar- 
riage could  be  contracted  between  the  people  of  the  two  villages. 
Sixty- two  years  ago  the  stone  returned. 

Lastly  come  an  interesting  sub-group,  standing  in  the  open 
hut  distinguished  by  being  naturally  of  sexual  shape.  Whether 
art  of  man  has  assisted  groping  nature,  or  the  artist  has  embel- 
lished his  sketch,  I  cannot  judge.  Certainly  any  such  stones 
would  not  fail  to  attract  the  attention  of  primitive  man  and  sug- 
gest or  confirm  that  sexual  philosophy  of  life  which  meets  the 
student  of  primitive  culture  in  every  part  of  the  world. 

'  5 


First  comes  an  entire  island,  though  of  course  a  very  small 
one,  of  height  greater  than  breadth  and  bearing  on  its  crown 
some  dozen  trees.  It  lies  northeast  of  Awaji  and  is  named 
Onokorojima,  "Spontaneously  congeled  island,"  or  Eskimo, 
"Placenta  island,"  about  which  more  later. 

Next  comes  a  natural  phallos  some  twenty  feet  high  and  a 
kteis  of  proportionate  size,  about  two  thirds  of  a  mile  apart,  on 
Inushima  in  Bizen. 

Last  on  this  sheet  of  Hiratas  is  a  natural  phallos  and  kteis 
placed  suitably  for  the  inception  of  coition.  "  Some  one  did 
injury  to  the  rock  and  was  destroyed,  and  all  his  house." 

This  is  simply  the  list  of  a  single  observer  and  enquirer,  and 
needs  the  complementation  that  can  easily  be  given  when  once 
attention  is  called  to  the  importance  of  the  subject  as  a  legiti 
mate  branch  of  nature  worship,  and  one  of  the  normal  manifes- 
tations of  religious  thought  in  its  search  for  some  clue  to  that 
Absolute  Ruler  of  Nature  that  the  deepest  thinkers  still  declare 
unsearchable. 

Last  in  this  strange  story  come  two  groups,  each  of  four 
immense  natural  phalloi  15-200  feet  high,  situated  in  the  court 
of  a  Buddhist  temple  called  Reiganji,  near  Kuroki  in  the  province 
of  Chikugo. 

II.  Symbols. —  Next  let  us  consider  phallic  symbols,  and  here  I 
cannot  do  other  than  describes  the  phallic  part  of  my  own  col- 
lection of  Shinto  cultus  implements  now  on  exhibition  in  the 
Walker  Museum  of  the  University  of  Chicago.1 

PHALLOI. 

1.  Natural  water-worn  phallos  of  stone  with  a  nodule  forming 
the  glaus  penis.  Highly  prized  by  former  owner  as  the  phallos 
of  a  deity.  Cn.  22x10.  From  one  of  the  very  numerous  brothels 
at  Yamada,  where  stands  the  famous  shrine  to  the  Sun  Goddess. 

2.  Natural  water-worn  phallos,  the  ridge  of  the  glaus  being 
formed  of  a  harder  stratum,  9.5  x  4.8.     From  temple  at  Mizusawa. 

3.  Like  No.  2  in  all  respects  but  size  which  is  7.1  x  2.3.  From 
Mizusawa. 

4.  Natural  Phallos  but  so  little  like   its  original   that  only  its 

1  All  measurements  are  given  in  centimeters. 

14 


source  from  a  phallic  temple  would  induce  an  unpracticed  for- 
eigner to  credit  that  it  was  ever  considered  one.  From  phallic 
shrine  at  Yamada. 

5.  Phallos  cut  from  volcanic  stone,  well  executed  and  new, 
20  x  10.     From  shrine  on  the  Konsei  Pass. 

6.  Phallos  of  baked  clay,  blackened  by  age.  Realistic, 
22x7.  From  brothel  at  Yamada,  where  it  stood  on  the  Kami- 
dana  "  God-shelf,"  for  occasional  worship  when  an  inmate  had 
obtained  a  good  fee. 

7.  Phallos  of  cast  iron,  9.1x3.2.      From  Mizusawa. 

8.  Phallos  of  wood,  17x4.     From  Mizusawa. 

9.  Another,  19x4. 

10.  Another,  stained  pink,  22x6. 

n.  Phallos  used  in  pairs  as  amulet  for  boys.  Octagonal 
shaft  surmounted  with  octagonal  pyramid,  stained  in  pink,  scarlet 
and  green.  A  string  passing  through  central  and  vertical  hole 
serves  to  suspend  over  child's  shoulder.     From  Mizusawa. 

12.  Phallos  of  clay,  gilded  and  painted  to  represent  the 
shimciiawa  or  sacred  rope,  3.5x1.5.  From  earthenware  store 
opposite  the  Inari  shrine. 

13.  Phallos-glaus,  forming  head  of  a  seated  man  in  ceremonial 
costume.  Clay,  with  impressed  and  colored  garments,  6.5x5.5. 
Old,  from  dealer  in  Miyajima.  A  remarkable  case  of  personifi- 
cation. 

14.  A  Priapus,  phallos  enormous  and  colored  bright  red. 
Clay,  4.5  x  3.5.      From   Inari  store. 

1 5.  Phallos  in  shape  of  enormous  mushroom,  borne  on  a  wom- 
an's back.  Painted  clay,  7  x  2.5.   From  Inare  store.  A  toy,cf.  No.  17. 

16.  Phallos  in  shape  of  a  wood  obelisk,  being  a  votive  for 
easy  parturition,  12x6.      From  a  shrine  at  Nikko. 

17.  A  nest  of  five  objects  carved  in  wood  and  gaily  painted, 
as  follows  :  a.  Fukusuke.  A  man  in  old  Japanese  style  beckon- 
ing with  his  left  hand.  Common  in  stores  to  insure  success  in 
trade.  Compare  Robin  Goodfellow.  14x10.  /;.  Otafuku.  A 
woman  of  the  fat  type  of  beauty.  Function  similar  to  above, 
both  are  known  to  every  Japanese  child,  9x5.  c.  Phallos  painted 
red  with  sacred  rope  round,  6  x  4.  d.  Phallos  painted  yellow, 
with    rope,    4x2.5     e.   Hoshi-no-tama  "Jewel  of   Omnipotence." 

l5 


An  onion-shaped  object  of  Buddhist  origin,  2x2,  cf.  p.  29. 
From  a  store  in  Nikko  near  the  site  of  a  demolished  phallic 
shrine  and  meant  for  use  as  a  toy.  The  associates  of  the  phallos 
in  this  group  plainly  show  that  it  has  here  sunk  from  the  rank  of 
a  god  receiving  worship  to  that  of  a  more  or  less  efficient  sign  of 
good  luck,  much  as  the  horseshoe,  cornucopia  and  slipper  —  all 
probably  symbols  of  the  kteis  —  are  still  used  in  England.  This 
use  was  exceedingly  common  in  Japan  until  about  twenty  years 
ago,  the  toy  shops,  earthenware  shops,  and  hawkers  being  well 
supplied  with  them.      {Mikado  s  Empire,  W.  E.  Griffis,  33.) 

KTENKS. 

18.  Natural  water-worn  kteis.  being  a  flat  piece  of  slate  with 
irregular  periphery  some  4.5  in  diameter,  and  having  a  water-worn 
aperture  near  the  center.     From  Mizusawa. 

19.  Natural  kteis  of  quartz  with  deep  indentation  near  centre, 
but  not   water-worn.      Irregular,   4x2.5.      From   Yamada  shrine. 

20.  Sea  ear- shell,  Latin  Haliotis  tuberculata,  Japanese  Awabi. 
Bears  name  of  donor  to  the  Kande  shrine.  The  living  shellfish 
is  so  suggestive  of  the  kteis  that  Japanese  women  often  use  its 
name  in  that  sense.     From  Kande  shrine. 

21.  Cowry  shell,  Latin  Cypraea  porcellana,  Japanese  Taka- 
ragai,  "treasure  shell."  Presented  at  temples  by  barren  women, 
3.5  x  2.5.     From  Yamada  store. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

22.  Bamboo  grass  rings  interlinked  to  symbolize  coition,  but 
precise  use  not  learned.     From  Mizusawa. 

23.  Votive  picture  on  wood  from  the  phallic  shrine  at  Kande, 
representing  a  tiger  which  symbolizes  the  month  in  which  the 
donor  was  born,  32  x  25. 

24.  Votive  picture  on  wood  representing  a  horse,  from  the 
phallic  shrine  at  Yamada,  6x4.     For  meaning  cf.  p.  29. 

25.  Akaza  no  tsue.  Canes  of  the  thorny  shrub  Chenopodium 
album,  from  Mizusawa.  These  are  used  to  set  up  round  the 
house  lot  to  preserve  boundary  lines.  This  combination  of 
phallic  and  boundary  ideas  by  a  temple  dedicated  to  Sarutahiko, 
whose  ephithet  here  is  Dosojin  "  Way-beginning  God,"  which 
may  refer  to  his  function  (Kojiki.  section  33)  as  guide,  easily  sug- 

16 


gests  the  same  triple  combination  in  Hermes.  Other  evidence 
for  identity  between  the  phallos  and  the  road-god  appears  in  Mr. 
Satow's  article  in  the  Westminster  Review.  Was  the  phallic  cane 
placed  in  the  field  to  render  it  fertile,  then  made  to  serve  also  as 
boundary  mark,  and  finally  to  preside  over  the  roads  which  would 
naturally  often  adjoin  boundaries  ? 

26.  Peach  made  in  candy  and  sold  to  children  by  hawkers  at 
certain  festivals  as  a  symbol  of  the  kteis,  for  which  it  appears  its 
cleft  adapts  it.     So  the  apricot  is  used  in  India.     From  Kyato. 

27.  Ginseng,  Chinese  Genseng,  Japanese  Ninjin.  The  best  is 
grown  in  Corea.  Price  varies  with  degree  of  the  root's  resemb- 
lance to  the  human  form,  which  in  some  cases  is  remarkable. 
The  best  specimens  fetch  three  dollars  each  for  use  in  medicine 
where  it  passes  for  a  panacea.  It  is  the  mandrake  of  Genesis  30, 
but  not  the  plant  wrongly  so  named  in  the  United  States. 

CHARMS. 

Of  all  cultus  implements  paper  charms  are  by  far  the  most 
numerous  in  Japan,  no  house  being  without  some  dozen.  Among 
the  various  kinds  is  the  phallic. 

28.  Charm  guaranteeing  easy  birth  bearing  the  name  of 
Konsei.     Cf.  p  18,  n  x  5. 

29.  Charm  bearing  the  inscription  An-san-marmori,  "  Easy- 
birth-charm."  The  paper  is  folded  into  a  triangular  shape  and 
contains  a  natural  equilateral  triangular  black  stone,  16x8. 
This  shape  is  unique  among  all  the  ten  thousand  charms  in 
Japan  and  can  be  accounted  for  in  no  way  except  its  resemblance 
to  the  pudenda  viewed  externally,  which,  as  seen,  e.g.,  in  statues, 
is  just  that  of  this  talismanic  stone  taken  base  uppermost.  The 
color  is  also  thus  alone  accounted  for.  Of  the  same  color  is  the 
famous  Diana  of  the  Ephesians  now  in  the  Naples  Museum. 
Her  numerous  breasts,  and  the  erotic  symbolism  on  her  robe  all 
indicate  the  sexual  idea.     From  Sumiyoshi  temple. 

30.  Charm  bearing  the  inscription  "  Honorable-God-offering," 
and  containing  rice  and  seaweed,  the  broth  from  which  must  be 
drunk  by  a  barren  woman.       20  x  12.       From  Sumiyoshi  temple. 

31.  Charm  bearing  the  inscription  "  Seed-lend-temple-divine- 
ticket."      16x5.     From  Sumiyoshi  temple. 

17 


32.  Charm  bearing  the  inscription  Sho  icJii  i  Konsei  dai  i/ivo 
rin  tai  hatsu.  "True  first  rank,  root  life,  great  shining  deity,  great  X 
charm."  Right  and  left  of  this  central  text  stand  the  words 
"Good  for  all  diseases  below  the  belt.  Life  will  be  long.  Good 
for  woman  when  rearing  child.  Mother  and  child  will  be 
healthy."  Inside  this  envelope  is  a  slip  bearing  the  inscription 
Ho  sai.  Saruta  hiko.  Izanagi.  Izanami.  Chinza.  Harai  tamae 
kiyome  de  tamae.  "  Offering,  purification.  Saruta  hiko.  Izanagi. 
Izanami.      Seat  (of  worship).      Grant  to  clear  away  and  clean." 

The  introduction  into  this  charm  of  Izanagi  and  Izanami 
will  become  clear  on  reading  the  section,  "Phallacism  in  the 
Kajiki."  Saruta  hiko  finds  mention  here,  I  believe,  owing  to  an 
extension  or  misunderstanding  of  Saruta's  original  function  as 
guide  to  Ninigi  no  Mikoto  when  descending  from  heaven,  | 
Kojiki,  107-8.  His  consequent  title  michi  mote,  "  road  origin," 
has  been  taken  in  the  sense  of  life-origin,  while  he  has  been  said 
to  have  been  born  spontaneously.  All  the  data  known  to  me 
indicate  that  his  true  place  is  in  a^i^Mnjng_jny_th.  -^ 

This  charm  is  water-stained  in  consequence  of  its  having  been 
consigned  in  a  box  together  with  many  like  it  to  a  neighboring 
pool  on  suppression  of  the  cult  some  twenty  years  ago.  When 
iconoclastic  zeal  had  somewhat  abated,  the  box  was  fished  up,  and 
its  owner  courteously  presented  this  precious  relic  of  a  well  nigh 
extinct  cult  to  a  zealous  collector  of  cultus  implements.  The 
supreme  interests  of  science  should  protect  the  giver  from  any  dis- 
agreeable consequences  that  might  be  inflicted  by  those  about 
him  now  ashamed  of  the  cult.  The  very  high  rank,  next  that  of 
the  Mikado  himself,  here  assigned  Konsei  shows  the  high  con- 
sideration the  cult  could  receive.  The  presence  of  a  phallos  today 
in  the  garden  of  a  samurai  —  the  old  military  and  literary  class- 
well  known  to  me,  though  long  ignored  by  the  noble  family,  affords 
additional  proof  that  the  cult  was  not  limited  to  the  lower  class. 

33.  Charm  bearing  the  inscription  "Konsei,  great  shining 
god.     Easy  birth  god  charm."     From  temple  at  Mizusawa. 

Before  leaving  this  topic  a  caution  on  the  danger  of  confusing 
phalloi  with  other  stone  monuments,  of  which  there  are  in  Japan 
as  elsewhere  several  kinds,  may  not  be  wasted.  Not  every  stand- 
ing stone  or  log  longer  than  it  is  thick  is  a  phallos,  though  some 

1 8 


go  per  cent,  of  phalloi  are  included  in  that  definition,  the 
remainder  lying  horizontal  or  pendant  but  in  either  case  then 
accompanied  by  the  scrotum.  One  needs  first  of  course  to  learn 
the  history,  use,  and  any  inscription  on  the  stone,  and  then 
frequently  discovers  that  the  stone  is  a  wayside  gravestone,  a 
boundary  stone,  a  sign  post  guiding  to  a  place  of  pilgrimage,  a 
weather-worn  Nure-butsu  —  an  unsheltered  image  of  one  of  the 
Buddhas  —  or  some  memorial  stone,  perhaps,  of  an  extinct  tree, 
perhaps  of  an  execution  ground.  These  specifications  all  find 
examples  in  Japan,  and  might  be  mistaken  by  the  tyro  anxious  to 
find  spoil.  Per  contra  the  phalloi  now  extant  and  the  product  of 
handicraft  in  Japan  are  unmistakable  by  reason  of  their  realism, 
though  those  produced  by  nature  need  a  practiced  imagination. 

III.  Phallic  Festivals. —  Every  temple  in  Japan  besides  celebrat- 
ing the  great  national  festivals  makes  one  in  honor  of  the 
deity  to  which  itself  is  specially  dedicated.  In  1892  I  visited 
the  Kande  shrine  a  second  time  on  such  an  occasion  held 
there  on  the  18th  day  of  the  3d  month,  old  style,  which  cor- 
responds to  a  varying  date  in  our  March.  The  date  of  the 
festival  at  the  phallic  shrine  at  Morioka  varies  from  this  by  only 
a  day,  and  both  plainly  concur  with  the  Springtide  festivals  of  all 
peoples.  Tyler's  Prim.  Culture  II.,  297.  This  festival  presented 
no  features  other  than  those  usual  on  such  occasions.  A  Shinto 
priest  came  from  a  distance  for  the  occasion  and  presented  in  the 
little  shrine  the  usual  offerings  of  rice  cake,  fruit,  etc.,  accom- 
panying them  with  prayers.  Men,  women  and  children  from  the 
country  side  came  and  departed  after  making  the  little  offering 
and  brief  prayer,  and  purchasing  refreshment  at  the  temporary 
stalls  hard  by.  The  neighboring  kteis  received  no  offerings 
though  most  of  the  worshipers  visited  it  also.  The  conduct  of 
all  was  irreproachable,  and  the  bearing  quite  unembarrassed,  for 
their  errand  was  the  honest  one  of  entreating  sexual  health  and 
family  increase  from  that  deity  whose  attributes  best  fitted  him  to 
grant  them.  Here  is  an  account  of  a  more  questionable  phallic 
procession  as  given  by  Dresser,  pp.  197-9:  "At  the  next  village 
((7/  route  from  Tokyo  to  Nikko,  where  Griffis  saw  the  dozen 
phalloi)  which  we  reached  a  great  Shinto  festival  was  being  held. 
Thousands  of  people  were  laughing  and  shouting  and  following 

19 


an  enormous  car,  something  like  that  of  Jaganath  in  India.  On 
this  car  is  a  platform  surrounded  by  a  low  railing,  while  in  the 
center  rises  a  mast  thirty  or  forty  feet  high  from  the  top  of  which 
fly  the  cut  papers  which  symbolize  the  Shinto  religion  {gohei  are 
meant),  while  around  its  lower  portion  a  tent  of  red  and  white 
cloth  is  suspended  from  a  hoop.  On  the  platform  are  musicians 
making  rude  music  with  gongs  and  fifes,  and  a  masked  actor, 
whose  actions  would  not  be  tolerated  in  England.  The  staff  of 
this  actor  is  unmistakably  phallic.  He  appears  alternately  as  a 
man  and  woman  —  changing  his  dress  in  the  tent  of  which  we 
have  spoken.  It  seems  that,  since  foreigners  have  been  permitted 
to  enter  the  country,  such  ceremonies  have  been  shorn  of  many 
of  their  characteristics,  symbols  have  been  reduced  in  number, 
while  the  processions  themselves  are  now  but  of  rare  occurrence." 
(This  was  written  in  1882.  The  restriction  referred  to  resulted 
from  the  first  Japanese  embassy  to  Europe  in  1872.) 

I  have  learned  orally  from  an  old  resident  in  Japan  of  a  pro- 
cession similar  to  this,  where  the  center  of  interest  was  an 
enormous  phallos  carried  in  appropriate  position  by  a  man. 

The  magnificent  procession  described  by  Humbert  on  pp. 
322-3  of  his  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Japanese  as  taking  place 
in  Tokyo  in  1863  was  not  properly  phallic,  though  it  included  some 
suspicious  objects,  such  as  a  model  lobster,  buffalo,  and  monkey, 
and  seven  prostitutes  "majestically  attired  in  state  costumes." 

The  following  festival  may  easily  be  a  survival  of  a  thoroughly 
phallic  one,  and  affords  evidence  for  a  sexual  symbolism  that 
strikes  the  modern  mind  as  very  strange.  It  is  held  in  the  court 
of  a  Buddhist  temple,  which  probably  adopted  and  modified  the 
originally  coarser  rites.  Young  men  and  women  meet  at  this 
Gwanzandaishi  temple  located  half  way  up  Mount  Hiyei,  amidst 
a  vast  forest  traversed  only  by  footpaths,  in  the  month  of  August 
of  an  evening,  and  spend  the  entire  night  in  a  peculiar  dance, 
where  forming  promiscuously  in  lines  they  work  their  way  through 
the  crowds  of  elder  and  younger  people  with  a  simultaneous 
swing  of  the  arms,  meanwhile  singing  a  composition,  which  after 
expressing  sympathy  with  a  certain  criminal  Gorobei  by  name, 
in  his  examination  before  the  stern  judge,  proceeds  to  the  erotic 
effusion  of  a  young  woman,  from  which  I  cull  the  symbolic  part; 

20 


"With  what  words  shall  I  compose  my  love  letter?  With  those 
belonging  to  birds,  or  fishes,  or  vegetables  ?  Yes,  Yes,  as  I  am 
a  greengrocer,  I  will  use  the  names  of  vegetables."  After  several 
vegetable  metaphors  and  puns  suited  to  expressing  her  passion, 
she  continues,  "Would  you  like  to  taste  the  first  fruit  of  the  long 
bean  ?  If  not,  would  you  not  try  to  break  the  hairless  peach  ? 
Oh  quick!     Ego  sum  cupidus  coiendi  tecum." 

Lastly,  here  is  a  neat  piece  of  sexual  metaphor  which  speaks 
volumes  for  the  familiarity  in  the  primitive  times,  from  which  the 
Manyefushifu  where  it  occurs  dates,  with  such  symbols.  White 
shells  seem  to  be  a  synonym  for  hairless  peach.  Generally  of 
course  in  the  Orient  the  kteis  is  figured  or  described  as  black, 
while  the  phallas  is  colored  red,  if  at  all.  It  is  necessary  briefly 
to  premise  that  the  piece  refers  to  a  method  of  divination  called 
Tsujiura  "Road-divining"  where  the  person  planted  a  stick  in 
the  road,  made  offerings  to  it  and  besought  an  answer  : 
"When  I  went  out 

and  stood  in  the  road, 

and  asked  the  evening  oracle 

when  he  would  come  back 

who  went  over  the  sweetheart's  mount 

and  the  lover's  mount, 

saying  that  he  would 

pick  up  the  awabi  shells 

which  come  ashore 

in  the  Region  of  Woods, 

the  evening  oracle  said  to  me  : 
'  Sweetheart ! 

he  for  whom  you  wait 

is  searching  for 

the  white  shells  which 

come  near  on  the  waves 

of  the  offing,  the  white  shells 

which  the  shore  waves 

bring  near. 

He  does  not  come, 

he  picks  them  up.     .    .    . 

If  he  be  long, 

'twill  be  but  seven  days, 

if  he  be  quick, 

'twill  be  but  two  days. 

He  has  heard  you. 

Do  not  yearn, 

my  Sweetheart ! '  " 

—  Trans.  As.  Soc,  Vol.  7,  p.  427 
21 


IV.  Rituals. — No  fixed  ritual  for  the  phallos  is  known  to  me. 
Certainly  none  is  contained  in  the  list  of  the  Yengishiki,  the 
official  collection  of  rituals  made  927  A.  D.  {Trans.  As.  Soc. 
Vol.  7,  prt.  2,  pages  103-4.)  The  content  of  the  impromptu 
prayers  made  in  this  case  is  always  request  for  some  good  in 
connection  with  generation,  e.  g.,  the  charm  from  Makibori  bears 
guarantees  of  easy  birth,  health  of  mother  and  child,  cure  of  dis- 
eases of  the  generative  organs,  and  long  life.  Inquiries  from 
worshipers  elicit  similar  ideas  and  they  reappear  in  the  practice 
of  borrowing  a  phallos  from  the  shrine  during  child-birth,  and, 
when  the  issue  has  proved  good,  of  returning  two  new  ones. 

V.  Phallicism  in  the  Kojiki. — Having  examined  some  extant 
data  we  are  in  a  position  to  attempt  the  interpretation  of  two 
passages  in  the  Kojiki,  the  sacred  book  of  Shinto.  This  was 
committed  to  writing  712  A.  D.,  when  a  collation  was  made  of 
the  then  extant  traditions  purporting  to  extend  backward  to  a 
divine  age  which  ended  some  1500  years  before.  None  of  the 
authorities  on  Shinto  known  to  me  have  attempted  any  detailed 
interpretation  of  the  cosgmogony  forming  Volume  1  of  this 
Kojiki.  The  general,  and  for  the  rest  correct  statement  that 
Shinto  is  a  compound  of  ancestor-worship  and  nature-worship 
has  not  been  further  discussed  by  any  writer  except  Mr.  Satow,  who 
enters  more  fully  into  the  matter  in  his  Westminster  Review 
article,  without  however  at  all  noticing  separate  myths,  and  mak- 
ing no  mention  of  sections  3  and  4,  which  we  here  copy  from  Mr. 
B.  H.  Chamberlain's  translation  given  in  the  Trans.  As.  Soc.  Sup- 
plement to  Vol.  X. 

Section  3. —  "  Hereupon  all  the  Heavenly  Deities  commanded 
the  two  Deities,  His  Augustness  the  Male-Who-Invites  and  Her 
Augustness  the  Female-Who-Invites,  ordering  them  '  to  make, 
consolidate,  and  give  birth  to  this  drifting  land.'  Granting  to 
them  an  heavenly  jeweled  spear,  they  (thus)  deigned  to  charge 
them.  So  the  two  Deities  standing  upon  the  Floating  Bridge  of 
Heaven,  pushed  down  the  jeweled  spear  and  stirred  with  it, 
whereupon,  when  they  had  stirred  the  brine  until  it  went  curdle- 
curdle,  and  drew  (the  spear)  up,  the  brine  that  dripped  down 
from  the  end  of  the  spear  was  piled  up  and  became  an  island. 
This  is  the  island  of  Onogoro." 


Section  4. —  "  Having  descended  from  Heaven  onto  this  island, 
they  saw  to  the  erection   of  an  heavenly  august  pillar,  they  saw 
to    the    erection  of    a    hall    of     eight  fathoms.      Tunc    qucesi- 
vit     (Augustus     Mas-Qui-Invitat)    a    minore    sorore   Augusta 
Femina-Qui-Invitat:      'Tuum     corpus     quo     in     modo    factum 
est  ?  '     Respondit  dicens  :     '  Meum   corpus   crescens  crevit,   sed 
una  pars   est   quae  non  crevit  continua.'     Tunc  dixit  Augustus 
Mas-Qui-Invitat:     'Meum   corpus  crescens    crevit,   sed    est   una 
pars  quae  crevit  superflua.     Ergo  an  bonum  erit  ut  banc  corporis 
mei  partem  quae  crevit  superflua  in   tui  corporis  partem  quae  non 
crevit     continua    inseram,    et     regiones     procreem  ? '       Augusta 
Femina-Qui-Invitat    respondit    dicens:      'Bonum    erit.'      Tunc 
dixit     Augustus     M.-Q.-I. :      'Quod    quum    ita    sit,  ego    et    tu, 
hanc   ccelestem    augustam    columnam    circumeuntes    mutuoque 
occurrentes,   augustarum    (1.    t\,    privatarum)    partium    augustam 
coitionem   faciemus.'      Hac  pactione  facta  dixit  (Augustus    M.- 
Q.-I.)  :    'Tu  a  dextera  circumeuns  occurre  ;   ego  a  sinistra  occur- 
ram.'      Absoluta    pactione    ubi    circumierunt,    Augusta  F.-Q.-I. 
primum  inquit :     '  O  venuste  et  amabilis  adolescens  ! '     Deinde 
Augustus    M.-Q.-I.    inquit:      'O     venusta    et    amabilis    virgo!' 
Postquam  singuli   orationi    finem    fecerunt,  (Augustus   M.-Q.-I.) 
locutus  est  sorori,   dicens:    'Non   decet  feminam  primum  verba 
facere.'    Nihilomimes  in  thalamo  (opus  procreationis)  inceperunt, 
et   filium    (nomine)   Hirudiuem    (vel    Hirudini   similem)  pepere- 
runt.     This  child   they  placed  in  a  boat  of  reeds,  and  let  it  float 
away.     Next  they  gave  birth  to  the  island  of  Aha.    This  likewise 
is  not  reckoned  among  their  children." 

Now  our  view  is  that  from  beginning  to  end  of  this  Vol.  1  is 
presented  a  series  of  nature-myths  still  susceptible  to  interpreta- 
tion, and  that  among  them  these  sections  3  and  4  attempt  a  cos- 
mogony expressed  in  terms  of  a  phallic  symbol  —  sec.  3  — and  of 
a  phallic  ceremony  —  sec.  4. 

First,  no  one  will  deny  the  transparency  of  the  epithets 
Male-Who-Invites  and  Female-Who-Invites.  They  are  just 
the  complementary  pair  so  indispensable  to  reproduction  pro- 
jected backwards  to  account  for  original  production.  Hirata, 
a  Japanese  antiquarian  of  first  rank,  considers  the  "jeweled 
spear"  a  phallas  and  scrotum  {Trans.  As.  Soc,  Vol.  3,  Appendix, 

23 


p.  59),  while  the  Island  of  Onogoro  on  account  of  its  peculiar 
shape  passes  in  the  native  imagination  for  a  gigantic  phallos, 
and  is  said  to  contain  many  such  scattered  about  it.  Hear  the 
redoubtable  Hirata  again  in  the  Tnyoseki  under  the  sketch 
described  in  this  article,  p.  14.  He  writes  :  "This  is  Onokoro 
jima,  etc.  It  is  solitary  and  has  no  connection  in  its  roots.  It 
stands  in  the  midst  of  waves  and  never  moves  in  spite  of  great 
earthquakes  even.  In  the  island  are  many  curious  stones,  many 
of  them  being  shaped  like  male  and  female  generative  organs. 
The  stones  produce  dewlike  liquid,  and  have  a  mineral  taste  on 
the  outside,  while  within  (the  stones  ?)  are  earths  and  sands." 
Now,  though  this  record  was  made  by  Hirata  so  late  as  181 2, 
since  the  phenomena  are  all  natural,  they  of  course  antedated 
the  mythical  imaginings  of  the  Kojiki,  to  whose  authors  the 
island  was  well  known,  and  doing  so  they  evidently  formed  the 
elements  of  the  myth.  The  only  need  then  was  for  poetic  fancy 
to  weave  primitive  pair,  artificial  phallos,  and  phallic  island  into 
some  connected  whole,  and  this  made  section  3.  What  was 
Hirata's  ground  for  his  view  of  the  jeweled  spear  is  not  stated, 
but  Japanese  archaeology  gives  monumental  evidence  of  the 
existence  in  the  polished  stone  age  of  phallic  rods  in  great 
variety,  though  their  exact  use  is  a  matter  only  of  inference. 
These  stone  rods  or  stones,  called  locally  "Raitsui"  or  thunder- 
bolts, are  figured,  along  with  numerous  other  remains,  in  an 
admirable  monograph  by  the  owner  of  the  finest  collection  of 
raitsui  in  Japan,  ex-Governor  T.  Kanda  of  Tokyo.  In  this 
monograph  Plate  7,  Figs.  2  and  4  ;  Plate  8,  Fig.  8,  and  Plate  9, 
Fig.  1  show  incised  figures  which  are  plainly  the  kteis,  in  full 
accord  with  another  statement  of  Hirata's,  that  the  jeweled 
spear  bore  on  it  the  figure  of  the  female  organ  (Inyoseki). 

In  section  IV.  our  mythical  cosmogony  first  introduces  coition 
as  a  means  of  conceiving  origins.  After  using,  in  sections  I.  and 
II.,  terms  of  terrestrial  motion  and  vegetable  life,  and  in  section  III. 
a  mixture  of  terms  from  terrestrial  and  animal  life,  the  myth  pro- 
ceeds to  fuller  circumstantiality  in  the  familiar  terms  of  purely 
animal  life.  Our  previous  investigations  make  quite  obvious 
the  meaning  of  "heavenly  august  pillar,"  while  apart  from  those 
side  lights  the  terms  here  employed  must  have  remained  unintel- 

24 


ligible,  or  at  least  conjectural.  Plainly  it  was  a  phallos.  As  to 
the  parallel  reading  in  the  Nikongi — a  nearly  contemporaneous 
but  much  rationalized  a  /#  Chinese  account  of  Japanese  history  — 
which  Mr.  Chamberlain  translates  "they  made  the  island  of 
Onogoro  the  central  pillar  of  the  land,"  and  which  he  considers 
"more  rational"  than  the  account  in  the  Kojiki,  the  obvious  truth 
is  that  it  is  "more  rational"  only  to  those  not  aware  of  or  not 
awake  to  the  phallic  phenomena  described  in  our  preceding 
pages.  Per  contra  in  the  light  of  those  phenomena  the  Kojiki's 
account  is  fully  vindicated.  Textual  purity  can  never  be  verified 
better  than  by  archaeology.  The  "hall  of  eight  fathoms"  was 
probably  a  coition  house.  Mr.  B.  H.  Chamberlain  writes  in  his 
Introduction  to  the  Kojiki XXVIII.,  "It  would  also  appear  to  be 
not  unlikely  that  newly  married  couples  retired  into  a  specially 
built  hut  for  the  purpose  of  consummating  the  marriage,  and  it 
is  certain  that  for  each  sovereign  a  new  palace  was  erected  on  his 
accession."  [Trans.  As.  Soc,  Vol.  X.  Supplement.)  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain no  doubt  bases  his  view  on  the  specifications  in  the  Kojiki 
of  a  thalamus  as  the  place  of  first  coition  for  man  and  wife.  Of 
such  mentions  I  count  three,  viz.,  pp.  20,  66,  and  75,  and  note 
further  the  following,  which  seems  to  indicate  a  similar  purpose: 

"Eight  clouds  arise.  The  eightfold  fence  of  Idzumo  makes 
an  eightfold  fence  for  the  spouses  to  retire  (within).  Oh!  that 
eightfold  fence."     (Trans  As.  Soc,  Vol.  X.,  Supplement  64.) 

The  parturition  house  is  described,  Kojiki  1 18,  as  eight  fathoms 
long,  and  this  is  the  length  of  the  coition  house  in  our  myth,  eight 
being  the  perfect  number  of  the  Japanese,  and  probably  often 
used  in  the  sense  of  fitting  or  proper.  The  purpose  of  such  a 
coition  house  will  be  obvious  to  those  familiar  with  the  original 
function  of  the  bridegroom's  "best  man"  as  protector  during  the 
consummation  of  a  marriage  which  depended  on  capture,  and 
with  the  jocose  interruptions  made  on  a  bridal  pair  after  retiring, 
e.  g.,  even  in  England,  and  so  late  as  the  sixteenth  century, 
according  to  Brand 's  Antiquities.  The  sequel  of  section  IV.  rather 
implies  that  the  column  stood  in  the  thalamus,  but  whether  within 
or  near  it,  the  running  round  the  column  before  the  marriage 
consummation  will  be  best  understood  in  the  light  of  those 
uotions  we  have   found  everywhere  connected  with   phallic  cult, 

25 


among  which  that  of  productivity  is  plainly  the  proper  one  here. 
In  Japan,  as  elsewhere  under  the  patriarchal  government  of 
primitive  times,  the  more  children  a  pair  had  the  richer  they  were 
likely  to  become,  and  such  a  recognition  of  Konsei  as  this  would 
be  considered  effectual  to  that  end.  If  so,  nothing  would  be 
more  natural  than  for  mythic  fancy  to  express  in  terms  so  familiar 
that  fruitful  union  which  resulted  in  the  production  of  nothing 
less  than  the  islands  of  divine  Japan,  as  the  later  sections  pro- 
ceed to  relate.  The  later  Shinto  apologists  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  smooth  all  difficulties  by  stating  that  the  islands 
have  grown  enormously  since  birth  !  I  submit  that  this  view 
meets  all  the  special  and  concrete  notions  of  the  myth,  while  no 
other  view  can  meet  any,  and  would  have  to  account  for  a  sense- 
less farrago  of  ideas,  ending  in  what  must  then  be  regarded  as  a 
mere  bawdy  tale,  for  which  the  undoubted  general  coarseness  of 
manners  in  primitive  Japan,  as  everywhere  under  like  conditions, 
affords  no  sufficient  ground. 


II.  CREED  OF  PHALLICISM. 

To  every  cult  belongs  a  creed,  implied  or  expressed,  written 
or  oral.  Of  the  phallic  cult  the  creed  is  implied.  It  shares  its 
world-view  with  the  nature-worship  of  which  it  forms  one  phase, 
and,  as  such,  sees  a  superior  being,  spirit,  or  god  embodied  in 
objects  naturally  or  artificially  made  to  resemble  animal  generative 
organs.  I  write  "embodied  in  "  advisedly,  having  in  mind  par- 
ticularly the  natural  phalloi  which  are  prized  vastly  higher  than 
the  manufactured  ones,  and  being  found  in  nature  could  hardly 
be  taken  for  aught  else  than  the  veritable  organ  of  the  god. 
Mysticism  would  cover  all  difficulties  in  the  view.  To  such 
superiors  —  which  is  all  that  the  Japanese  kami,  often  translated 
gods  or  god,  means  —  primitive  man  turned  in  his  needs,  and 
naturally,  to  that  particular  one  presiding  over  the  sphere  in 
which  his  need  occurred.  Hence  comes  the  phallic  cult  which 
forms  as  natural,  proper  and  legitimate  a  system  of  worship  as 
that  of  the  sun  or  fire,  and  can  only  by  gross  misconception  be 
associated  with  obscenity,  though  this  is  often  done  by  those 
devoid  of  sympathetic,  historic  imagination  and  anxious  to  point 

2b 


a  moral  or  adorn  a  tale.  That  the  whole  symbolism,  though 
most  natural  and  striking  for  that  ever  mysterious  vital  force  of 
nature,  has  become  inappropriate  for  us  who  are  wont  to  say  : 
"God  is  spirit,"  affords  no  proof  that  its  first  intent  was  not  ' 
wholly  as  described  above.  Cf.  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations, 
by  Rev.  Sir  G.  W.  Cox,  349-50. 

I  have  written  in  the  preceding  paragraph  as  if  the  object  of 
the  phallic  cult  were  one  single  thing,  the  phallos;  and,  if  the 
reader  has  accepted  the  assumption  without  challenge,  he  has 
but  thought  in  accord  with  the  general  treatment  of  the  subject 
which  faultily  neglects  to  duly  express  the  duality  of  the  cult. 
We  speak  of  phallicism  and  the  Germans  of  Phalluscult,  and 
thereby  tend  to  ignore  the  kteis-cult  which  prevails  but  little  if 
any  less  than  phallos-cult.  But  just  as  the  term  man  is  used  for 
mankind,  i.  e.,  man  and  woman,  so  phallicism  serves  for  what  is 
properly  phalloktenism,  cult  of  the  phallos  and  kteis.  This 
dualism  shows  itself  in  the  usual  juxtaposition  in  India  of  the 
linga  and  yoni,  in  Syria  of  the  masseba  and  ashera  (I  take  the 
masseba  as  the  male  symbol),  in  Greece  of  the  phallos  and  kteis 
{Monumens  des  Dames  Romaines,  Plate  50.  Mythology  of  the 
Aryan  Nations,  G.  W.  Cox,  362),  in  Egypt  of  the  cross  and 
ring  combined  into  the  crux-ansata,  in  China  of  the  yang  and 
yin  as  seen  intertwined  in  the  Corean  crest  called  in  Japanese 
futatsu-tomove,  and  finally  in  Japan  of  the  yoseki  and  inseki. 

This  dualism  is  equally  conspicuous  in  the  more  anthropo- 
morphized objects  of  worship  represented  by  the  phallos  and 
kteis.  Thus  Hinduism  coordinates  Kali  with  Siva,  whose  symbols  f 
in  particular  the  kteis  and  phallos  are,  and  Minakshi  —  the  local 
goddess  at  Madura  identified  with  Kali  —  is  carried  every  night 
to  share  the  couch  of  Sundaresvara.  Indeed,  in  India,  where 
pretty  much  everything  both  rational  and  irrational  has  been 
tried,  a  whole  sect,  the  Saktas  devotes  exclusive  attention  to  this 
feminine  side  of  nature.  In  Syria  Astarte  coordinated  with  Baal,  i 
in  Egypt  Isis  with  Osiris,  in  Greece  Demeter  with  Dionysas 
(Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations,  G.  W.  Cox,  362),  and  in  north 
Europe  Freya  with  Ereyr,  and  each  of  these  goddesses  has  often 
received  exclusive  honors,  usually  with  the  same  demoralizing 
effect  as  in  India.     Some  students  point  to  Mariolatry  as  the  last 

27 


example  of  the   same  tendency  {Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations 
G.   W.    Cox,  355).     So   obviously  necessary  to   reproduction   is 
duality  that  where  a   spouse  is  wanting,  feminine   qualities  are 
attributed  to  the  male,  as  with  Quetzalcoatl  god  of  reproduction  j 
among  the  Aztecs  {American  Hero  Myths,  Brinton,  127). 

Similarly  in  Japan  we  find  the  couples  Kami-musubi-o-kami 
and  Takami-musubi-o-kami,  the  "  Divine-Producer  "  and  "  Divine- 
Produceress"  as  some  understand  them  {Parliament  of  Religions, 
J.  H.  Barrows,  452.  Lectures  on  Shinto,  Professor  Matsuyama, 
Kyoto.  Kakemono  from  Izumo  O  Yashiro),  and  again  Izanagi 
and  Izanami,  the  "Male-that-Invites"  and  "  Female-that- 
Invites,"  compared  by  native  Christians  with  Adam  and  Eve,  a 
comparison  made  in  the  first  place  naively,  but  hitting  the  mark 
quite  closely  since  both  couples  belong  to  phallic  myth,  though 
they  differ  absolutely  in  subsequent  moralization  and  consequent 
religious  value.  But  in  Japan,  where  phallicism  remains  still,  as 
in  India,  a  living  faith,  it  becomes  possible  to  trace  out  this  dual- 
ism into  a  number  of  details  not  otherwise,  I  think,  easily  expli- 
cable. 

A  quite  unequivocal  case  is  that  of  the  interlinked  rings  of 
bamboo  grass  (No.  22  p.  16)  expressly  designed  to  represent 
coition.  Equally  significant  is  the  presentation  of  awabi  shells 
(No.  20) — symbols  of  the  kteis  —  before  the  phallos  and  not  the 
kteis  at  Kande.  Conversely  a  woman  borrows  from  the  Mizu- 
sawa  temple  a  phallos,  not  a  kteis,  to  help  her  in  parturi- 
tion. At  Yamada  the  reciprocity  is  recognized  only  in  so  far  as 
votives  of  both  sexes  are  presented,  though  whether  any  distinc- 
tion is  made  in  the  deity  before  which  they  are  placed  I  have  yet  to 
learn.  The  rule  valid  there  to  offer  a  phallos  in  order  to  obtain 
a  husband  or  son,  and  a  kteis  for  a  wife  or  daughter  implies  the 
notion  underlying  all  magic  that  formal  likeness  with  anything 
insures  power  over  it.  Here  too  belongs  the  offering  only  of 
phalloi  to  the  phallos  on  the  Konsei  Pass.  Perhaps  a  further 
detail  of  the  dualism  necessary  to  all  fruitful  issue  appears  in  the 
practice  of  pouring  wine  over  the  phallos  and  kteis  at  Matsuzawa 
which  are  said  to  rapidly  absorb  it,  and  in  the  statement  of  Hirata 
that  the  phalloi  and  ktenes  of  Onogoro-shima  secrete  a  dewy 
liquid.     Similarly  tiny  wooden  tablet  votives  bearing  a  sketch  of 

28 


a  horse  are  presented  to  the  Yamada  pillar  pair.  This  horse  can 
hardly  mean  other  than  in  Buddhist  symbolism,  namely,  the  fer- 
i  tilization  rain  cloud  [Indian  Buddhism,  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids,  133). 
The  rain  falling  from  this  cloud  is  the  impregnating  medium 
from  heaven  to  earth  in  the  cosmic  myths  of  so  many  peoples. 
Were  it  not  that  the  hosbi-ho-tama,  "  Jewel-of-Omnipotence,"  like- 
wise a  Buddhist  symbol,  has  been  introduced  on  to  the  sacred 
Ise  Shrine  in  the  same  town,  I  should  hesitate  to  believe  that  any 
Buddhist  symbol  had  penetrated  this  citadel  of  Shinto.  The 
horse,  however,  may  prove,  together  with  the  sacred  albino  horse 
common  in  great  Shinto  shrines,  a  survival  of  the  great  horse 
sacrifice  of  the  Mongol  shamanism  from  which  Shinto  is  descend- 
ent.  With  this  Japanese  notion  of  fertilization  compare  the  effu- 
sion of  water  —  sometimes  with  bilva  leaves  and  marigolds  —  in 
the  Indian  cult  of  the  linga-yoni  {Brahmanism  and  Hinduism,  M. 
Williams,  439).  Lastly,  in  the  phallic  procession  described  by  Mr. 
Draper,  an  actor  appears  dressed  alternately  as  man  and  woman 
with  which  compare  the  exchange  of  attire  in  Western  orgies. 
Further  data  may  require  modification  of  the  position  here  taken, 
and  it  is  much  to  be  hoped  that  such  will  be  obtained  by  many 
investigators  in  Japan  betore  this  primitive  formal  biology  yield 
to  the  modern  causal  science  of  that  name.  In  any  case  some 
special  reason  must  be  sought  why  the  votive  offering  to  phallos 
and  kteis  are  duplicates  or  reciprocals  of  themselves.  No  paral- 
lel to  this  practice  outside  of  phallicism  is  known  to  me  either 
in  or  out  of  Japan  ;  for  the  foxes  so  often  duplicated  there  are 
so-called  servants  of  Inari  San,  to  whom,  therefore,  they  are 
offered,  and  not  to  the  fox  itself. 

The  creed  or  mental  equivalent  of  the  phallic  cult,  then,  is 
that  reproduction  is  controlled  by  two  deities  related  as  man  and 
wife,  that  these  are  best  represented  by  their  reproductive  organs 
found  by  man  in  stream  and  field,  and  that  they  are  best  wor- 
shiped by  the  presentation  of  similar  objects  of  a  sex,  either 
opposite  or  similar  to  that  of  the  deity  concerned.  In  the  case 
of  Konsei,  worshiped  near  Yumoto  without  any  sexual  partner, 
emphasis  is  placed,  as  frequently  in  other  cults,  on  the  male 
element. 

One  commentary  on  such  a  creed  is  obvious  and  unavoidable 

29 


and  will  serve  equally  well  for  all  creeds.  The  mental  elevation 
and  consequent  value  of  gods  varies  solely  and  directly  as  the 
mental  elevation  of  their  worshipers.  Show  me  your  man,  and 
I  will  show  you  his  s^od. 


III.  PLACE  OF  PHALLICISM  IN  THE   EVOLUTION  OF 

RELIGION. 
First,  there  is  no  need  to  search  for  any  simpler  or  more  obvi- 
ous principle  on  which  to  base  phallicism  than  its  own,  namely, 
worship  of  the  superior  beings  that  control  reproduction.  In 
other  words  phallicism  may  easily  be,  what  no  existing  evidence 
confutes  and  all  confirms,  namely,  a  thoroughly  primitive  form  of 
that  naturism  — nature  worship  —  which  judicious  thinkers  regard 
as  coordinate  with  animism  —  spirit  worship  —  instead  of  attempt- 
ing, as  H.  Spencer,  to  derive  it  from  the  latter.  This  contention 
rests  particularly  on  the  existence  of  the  natural  phallos  and 
kteis,  than  which,  of  course,  nothing  can  be  more  primitive  since 
man  has  roamed  this  earth.  Wherever  the  erosive  action  of  water, 
whether  rain,  river  or  sea,  produced  from  rocks  and  stones  the 
shapes  which  even  now  can  vividly  suggest  to  our  restrained 
imaginations  the  animal  generative  organs,  there  a  fortiori  the 
primitive  savage  must  have  seen  indubitable  evidence  of  what  to 
him  would  seem  explicable  only  as  a  partial  embodiment  of  the 
controllers  of  his  otherwise  often  unaccountable  fortunes.  Thus 
in  a  very  striking  way  "Nature  the  instructor  of  primeval  man" 
has  suggested  to  him  not  only  his  inventions  but  his  worship 
{Trior's  Primitive  Culture,  L,  64).  But,  moreover,  and  of 
peculiar  interest  in  its  bearing  on  the  contention  of  naturists  and 
animists  as  to  the  origin  of  religion,  here  in  the  phallos  and 
kteis  were  found  direct  indications  of  the  anthropomorphic 
nature  of  those  his  controllers,  for  which  sun,  moon,  star,  or  any 
other  object  whatsoever  of  nature  worship  failed  to  afford  any 
morphological  hint.  If  here  were  the  veritable  phallos  and  kteis 
of  his  controllers,  the  controllers  themselves  could  not  be  far 
off,  and  would  necessarily  be  imagined  in  full  complementation 
of  the  visible  organs,  that  is  as  human  beings,  or  minds  in  bodies, 
which  conception  is  precisely  what  animism  sometimes  supposes 
itself  alone  able  to  account  for. 


Second,  as  to  the  sequences  of  this  cult.  The  light  thrown 
by  phallicism  on  the  essential  nature  and  evolution  of  religion 
is  clear  and  striking.  Both  the  distance  and  the  direction  of 
the  newer  views  of  God  from  the  older  are  made  apparent. 
That  distance  is  not  immeasurable  but  has  lain  in  time,  and 
that  direction  is  not  inscrutable  but  has  consisted  in  progress. 
Man  has  been  the  measure  of  things  —  if  not  the  individual 
yet  the  race,  and  that  whether  his  measure  has  worked  as  the 
limit  of  capacity  or  limit  of  construction.  If  the  former 
alternative  —  that  of  capacity  —  be  taken,  an  objective,  real 
god  has  revealed  himself  progressively,  and  therefore  at  any 
single  stage  only  partially,  to  man,  just  because  such  partial 
revelation  has  been  all  that  man  could  receive ;  if  the  latter 
alternative  —  that  of  construction  —  be  taken,  a  subjective,  unreal 
—  or  according  to  some  thinkers  nevertheless  real — God  has 
been  constructed,  imagined,  or  projected  by  man,  but  always 
only  progressively,  and  therefore  at  any  one  stage  only  par- 
tially, just  beecause  such  partial  construction  was  all  of  which 
man  was  then  capable.  (Se/f  Revelation  of  God.  S.  Harris, 
passim).  And  therefore,  in  any  case,  as  man  has  evolved  through- 
out his  physical  and  mental  nature,  his  concept  of  God  has  pari 
passu  improved.  "  Du  gleichst  dem  Geist  den  du  begreifst " 
holds  equally  true  in  its  converse  form.  We  understand  the 
spirit  we  resemble.  In  the  case  of  the  Absolute  Spirit  this  under- 
standing can  never  reach  completeness,  and  our  principle  there- 
fore reduces  in  its  case  to  the  humbler  proposition  :  "  Man  under- 
stands God  so  far  as  he  resembles  him."  The  challenge  of  the 
skeptic:  "Show  me  your  God,"  must  be  met  by  the  answer  alike 
of  Christian,  philosopher  and  anthropologist :  "  Show  me  your 
man."  There  was  a  stage  in  man's  mental  progress  when  God 
could  be  revealed  to  or  constructed  by  man  best  —  that  is  most  intel- 
ligibly and  impressively  —  as  phallos  and  kteis.  Among  all  the 
things  that  are  made  it  would  have  been  marvelous  indeed,  if  organs 
so  conspicuously  instrumental  to  the  mysterious  propagation  of  life 
had  not  been  used  to  "perceive  the  invisible  things  of  him  since 
the  creation  of  the  world  even  his  eternal  power  and  divinity." 
Rom,  i  :  20.  Of  all  the  power  desired  by  man  alike  for  himself, 
flocks  and   fields,  productivity  was  the  chief,   and  consequently 

31 


the  objects  considered  to  embody  that  power  the  most  honored. 
That  man  thus  often  submerged  his  god  in  nature  instead  of 
conceiving  him  as  an  "eternal  power"  above  nature  was  natural 
anthropologically,  though  justly  repudiated  by  Paul,  a  represen- 
tative of  a  more  progressed  order.  The  original  symbols,  now 
so  shocking  to  us  in  their  bare  materialism,  have  been  refined 
with  man's  refinement  until  "  finally  in  the  exquisite  legend  of 
the  Sangreal  the  symbols  have  become  a  sacred  thing,  which  only 
the  pure  in  heart  may  see  and  touch."  {Mythology  of  the  Aryan 
Nations.     Rev.  Sir  G.  W.  Cox,  360.) 


IV.  DOES  PHALLICISM  BELONG  TO  SHINTO? 

Since  phallicism  has  shrines,  festivals,  priests  and  amulets 
identical  with  those  of  Shinto,  and  since  its  principal  symbol 
and  ceremonial  receive  mention  in  the  sacred  book  of  Shinto, 
and  since  phallicism  belongs  of  right  to  nature  worship,  which 
in  Japan  constitutes,  with  ancestor  cult,  Shinto,  it  seems  probable 
that  the  phallicism  of  Japan  forms  an  integral  part  of  Shinto. 
And  so  Rein  in  his  Japan  "Like  phallic-worship,  which,  together 
with  its  symbols  formerly  so  numerous  and  widespread,  has,  as  a 
result  of  foreign  influence,  been  entirely  banished  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  reign  of  Meiji  (1868),  belonged  to  Shintoism,  so  also 
does  this  ancestor-worship  appear  at  least  to  have  judged  the 
Yoshiwaras  —  prostitute  quarters  —  very  mildly,  if  not  to  have 
directly  favored  them."     Japan,  p.  .     Note  several  errors  here, 

however.  Phallicism,  as  we  now  know,  has  not  yet  by  any 
means  been  entirely  banished.  Shinto  is  not  rightly  designated 
ancestor-worship,  certainly  not  if  it  includes  phallicism.  Nor 
should  phallicism  ever  be  linked,  as  here,  with  an  undoubtedly 
immoral  institution  like  the  Yoshiwara,  the  Japanese  name  for 
the  harlot  quarter,  primarily  in  Tokyo,  but  subsequently  anywhere. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  somewhat  unequal  distribution  of 
phallicism  in  Japan,  e.  g.,  its  apparent  absence  from  the  great 
highway  called  the  Tokaido,  the  absence  of  its  ritual  from  the 
Shinto  official  prayer-book  or  Yengishiki,  and  some  philological 
and  archaeological  facts  that  point  to  the  Ainus  as  the  source  of 
the  cult  require  consideration  before  the  connection  with  Shinto 


can  be  considered  settled.  Batchelor  indeed  makes  no  mention 
of  phallicism  in  his  Ainu  of  Japan,  but  the  fashion  of  garbling 
treatises  from  all  that  would  unfit  them  for  parlor  reading  prevails 
to  such  an  extent  that  negative  evidence  on  this  topic  and  kindred 
sociological  and  physiological  ones  amounts  to  simply  nothing. 
The  above  data  best  suit  the  view  that  phallicism,  while  originally 
and  properly  a  part  of  Shinto,  was  little  if  at  all  recognized  in 
later  official  religion,  though  it  persisted  in  the  folk-religion, 
where  indeed  it  still  survives  in  moribund  state. 

One  general  remark.  The  bearing  of  the  discovery  of  phalli- 
cism in  Japan  upon  the  science  of  comparative  religion  is  of  con- 
siderable interest.  Phallicism,  long  since  demonstrated  for  the 
Indo-Keltic  race  and  easily  demonstrable  for  the  Semitic,  now 
turns  up  among  the  Mongols.  Thus  this  now  obsolescent  cult 
appears  to  have  prevailed  in  all  three  of  the  historic  races.  This 
generality  well  matches  the  naturalness  and  obviousness  of  the 
notion  involved.  The  bearing  of  Japanese  phallicism  upon  the 
controversy  between  Canon  McClatchie  and  Dr.  Legge  upon 
Chinese  phallicism  must  remain  for  future  treatment. 


V.  SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  RESEARCH. 

Are  there  other  dances  of  the  Gwan-Zan-daishi  type? 

How  did  hashira  come  to  be  the  numeral  for  gods? 

Why     are    snakes  —  dried     and     enshrined  —  worshiped     in 

^Idzunno  as  protectors  from  fire  and  flood?    The  snake  associated 

with    Benten,  and  worshiped  at  Shirakumo-jiuja,  Kyoto,  by  the 

presentation   of  toy   pails  of  water  probably  came  with  Benten 

from  Hinduism  via  Buddhism. 

Why  does  a  bit  of  awabi,  or  its  picture,  accompany  every 
present  made  in  Japan?  Kaempfer  in  his  chap.  13  writes, 
"  it  is  intended  to  remind  them  of  the  frugality  as  well  as 
the  poverty  of  their  ancestors  who  lived  chiefly  upon  the  flesh 
of  this  shell."  Pinkertoii,  7,  734-  Probably  no  such  high 
didactic  motive  ever  entered  the  heads  of  men  of  the  period 
when  this  custom  began.  Kaempfer  assigns  the  same  reason  — 
here  well  known  to  be  false  —  for  preserving  the  primitive  type 
of  structure  in  the  Ise  Shrine.     Does  this  bit  of  awabi  mean  "  I 

33 


am  clinging  to  your  friendship,"  in  the  sense  of  "Awabi  no  kata 
omoi."  Or  does  the  awabi  here  signify  a  wish  for  that  abun- 
dance which  the  kteis  mediates  and  in  other  lands  symbolizes? 
And  does  its  lozenge-shaped  envelope  symbolize  the  same  organ? 

Why  were  so  many  phallic  shrines  found  on  the  highway  from 
Tokyo  to  Nikko  {Mikado's  Empire  33),  and  none  on  the  much 
longer  road  from  Tokyo  to  Kohe,  i.  c,  the  great  Tokaido?  That 
none  were  there  when  Caron,  Kaempfer,  and  Siebold  traveled  it 
is  fairly  inferable  from  their  silence  as  to  them,  while  they  did 
not  spare  the  licentiousness**they  found  common  around  them. 
[Caron  613,  629,  634.  Kaempfer  chap,  xx.)  Kaempfer,  how- 
ever, remarks  on  "other  religious  objects  on  the  road,  as  also 
other  monstrous  images  and  idols." 

Why  are  red  and  white  the  favorite  colors  of  Shinto,  as  seen 
in  the  miko's  dress  at  the  kagura,  in  the  flags  carried  at  funerals, 
and  in  those  about  Miya,  as  at  Miajinja  dedicated  to  Hiruko,  the 
leech  child  of  Izanaji  and  Izanami? 


34 


DATE  DUE 

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